Squaring a circle on Pi day!

by | Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Pie upon reflection is nothing but 3.14!
A new version of a design I had created a year ago.
Original idea stolen from the Interwebs

Since it is Pi(e) day, I thought it would be fun to share another design I had created a while ago in response to one of the longest running challenges in geometry: the challenge of squaring a circle. As wikipedia says:

Squaring the circle is a problem proposed by ancient geometers. It is the challenge of constructing a square with the same area as a given circle by using only a finite number of steps with compass and straightedge.

Turns out this is impossible to do—and the main reason are the fascinating properties of the number Pi. More on that here. As Wikipedia goes on to say:

The transcendence of pi implies the impossibility of exactly “circling” the square, as well as of squaring the circle.

This is why “squaring the circle” has come to represent trying the impossible.

Impossible you say? Hah! I laugh at the face of such odds.

I am here to announce that after thousands of years of failure I have finally done what no one has ever done before – I have squared a circle. Not just that, I have gone one step further, I have also circled a square. The proof is in the pudding-pie you say! Well see for yourself. The design below should be self-explanatory.

Squaring a circle by circling a square

The square in the middle is actually a circle and the circle outside is actually a square! Or is it the circle inside is actually a square or the square outside is actually …? Hmmm… Either way, Happy Pi Day!

A few randomly selected blog posts…

SITE 2024: A recap

SITE 2024: A recap

The Society for Information Technology in Teacher Education (SITE) conference has been an integral part of my professional journey for over two decades. My first presentation at SITE was back in 2001 with Matt Koehler and through the years, SITE has played a pivotal...

Is your head in the McClouds!

Scott McCloud is a pioneer in his field - the field of comics. (I had previously posted about him here). I just discovered (via Presentation Zen & Matt Koehler) a TED talk he had given back in 2005. It is a wonderful introduction to McCloud the man and his ideas....

TPCK (a.k.a TPACK) as Article of the Week!!

Teachers College Record chooses a couple of articles each week to offer freely to visitors to its website. These are featured in their email newsletter (TCRecord this week), and goes out to thousands of people. Imagine my surprise when I opened my newsletter a few...

Article in WEF Global Information Technology Report

Everybody has heard of the  World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. As Wikipedia says, "The meeting brings together some 2,500 top business leaders, international political leaders, selected intellectuals, and journalists to discuss the most...

Correlates of creativity

Just came across this on the Ph.D. design list (a listserv for discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design) from a posting by Charles Burnette. He quotes Donald MacKinnon, author of a large study on creativity in the arts, sciences and professions: If I...

SITE08 Keynote YouTubed!

I just found out (via These Apples are Delicious blog, and more specifically this posting: Creative Teachers) that the keynote that Matt and I presented at SITE08 is now available on YouTube! Somebody went through the effort of breaking up the video into 5 parts and...

Creativity in the lives of accomplished teachers

How do exemplary teachers incorporate creativity in their teaching? In this dissertation study, Danah Henriksen  interviewed National Teacher of the Year award winners (and finalists), to better understand their beliefs, interests, and practices involving creative...

Ads in Video Games

A couple of people have emailed me about the Obama campaign inserting advertisements into video games. Check out this Flickr set with screenshots of these advertisements. Most of the press is reporting that these ads show up in just racing games but as these...

Summer travel 2008 photographs

I have been taking photographs as I travel around Asia (what I have previously described as my multi-national TPACK tour) and uploading them onto Flickr as and when I can. Go to the photographs

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  1. Pi(e) day, 2019 – Punya Mishra's Web - […] the circle. I beg to differ, as I so (tongue-in-cheek-ingly) proved in this blog post from last year. Please…

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